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Fix: All Options are Greyed Out in Disk Management
Repair important system files so you manage your drive’s partitions
6 min. read
Updated onOctober 4, 2023
updated onOctober 4, 2023
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Key notes
Disk Managementis a handy Windows 11 tool that manages all the disk drives connected to your computer. It enables you to manage them and any associated partitions.
Sometimes, you may experience a problem with Disk Management in that all the options for a drive are greyed out. This renders them unusable and unable to be managed appropriately.
Why are the options greyed out in Disk Management?
Before going into the fixes, it’s essential to understand what causes options to get greyed out. That way, you’ll know exactly what to do if it happens again.
How can I fix greyed-out options in Disk Management?
Before going into the more complicated solutions, there are a handful of quick fixes that you should try out:
1. Expand volume via DiskPart
If the Extend Volume option in the Disk Management context menu is greyed out, this solution works best for that error.
2. Reformat partition vis DiskPart
You should do this solution if the Format option is greyed out in Disk Management.
3. Perform Startup Repair
4. Change partition style
5. Run the repair disk command
How can I recover unallocated disk partitions?
Like the greyed-out options, unallocated partitions can be caused by malware and corrupt files, although running an SFC scan will not work.
Instead, you must go into theDisk Management tooland format the partition or use third-party software like AOMEI Partition Assistant.
While we have you, we recommend learning how toperform a dual boot-up on separate hard drives. Doing so will allow you to simultaneously boot two operating systems on a single computer.
This is particularly useful if you need to work on separate systems but don’t have an extra computer. The process is pretty involved as it will require you to set a new partition for the new OS.
We also recommend reading our guide onhow to convert a RAW to NTFS drive without formatting.
Feel free to comment below if you have questions about other partition tools. And please tell us if there’s a specific guide for any native Windows 11 software you’d like to see.
More about the topics:disk management,DiskPart,Windows 11
Cesar Cadenas
Networking & Security Specialist
Cesar has been writing for and about technology going on for 6 years when he first started writing tech articles for his university paper. Since then, his passion for technology blossomed into a prosperous writing career. He first started writing about tech in the entertainment world and would later move on to write about smart life tech and social media. He was recently a Technical Writer for tech company Extron where he wrote user guides for audio and video equipment.
He has since moved on to being a freelance writer looking to have a career in copywriting and hopes to share his love and knowledge of technology with the world. Recently, Cesar has written for the cryptocurrency news site, BTCPro and helping people understand tech.
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Cesar Cadenas
Networking & Security Specialist
Cesar is a tech expert passionate about Windows, Microsoft, and anything surrounding the world of PCs.
